The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned the trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to October 10, 2025, for ruling on the no-case submission filed by his legal team.

*SOME NIGERIAN NEWSPAPER HEADLINES+, 18/07/2025*

Tinubu renames University of Maiduguri after Buhari

Shocking surge: Electricity subsidy jumps 220% to nearly N2tn

36 commissioners oppose Senate-proposed Electricity Act Amendment Bill

Troops reject ₦13.7m bribe from terrorists in Plateau – DHQ

Dangote halts fuel discount scheme amid fraud allegations

Court remands influencer Scott Iguma over alleged defamation of PWAN

Junior D’Tigress face Argentina in classification round

Pillars Sign N100m Sponsorship Deal With RFI Hausa, Unveils New Kits

Fraud probe opened into Mbappe payments to police officers

Trump diagnosed with vein issue after leg swelling, hand bruising

Interpol probes importation of N3.3bn damaged solar panels

London Mayor explores fintech opportunities in Lagos


*DID YOU KNOW?*

* July was named after the famous Roman general Julius Caesar by the Roman senate; as it was the month he was born in.

* The national flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, is considered the oldest continuously used national flag in the world. According to legend, it fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse on June 15, 1219 when King Valdemar II was fighting a crusade against Estonian pagans.
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Not perfect, but honourable, Tinubu lauds Buhari at special FEC meeting

Tinubu to visit Kano today on condolence mission

Govt will uphold Buhari’s family dignity, says Shettima

Buhari left his boots in corridors of power – Akpabio

Buhari’s words guided my actions as Speaker- Abbas

S’Court strikes out AMCON’s appeal in N24.6bn debt case against firm

Appeal Court affirms Kabir Ibrahim’s sack as Nigerian farmers’ association’s president

Two to face trial for illegal waste dumping in Lagos

Medical travel: Your passport not in our file, Court tells ex-Gov Bello

Five ADC state chairmen sue Mark, others

24 pro-Biafran detainees freed after four years in Ebonyi

Navy intercepts 1,575kg cannabis, foils Lagos waterway drug operation

Electricity Amendment bill will worsen consumers’ financial burden – Commissioners

FG seeks Galaxy Backbone’s support on paperless governance

Africa’s security rests on collaboration, unity – Badau

FG to host international air show December

FG, Bi-Courtney may resume talks on Lagos airport mega projects

Invest in Nigeria’s health sector, minister urges Nigerians in diaspora

Anambra governorship elections: INEC register 96,085 new voters in nine days

Gov poll: INEC extends Anambra voter registration

FG targets N23tn GDP boost through value addition

NELFUND plans job portal to connect graduates, employers

NIMASA shuts two fuel-loading terminals over security breach

Ekiti, Ondo doctors set for showdown over FG pay review

RMAFC grills oil firm over neglect of Anambra host communities

16 MDs in 25 years stall NDDC progress – Ogbuku

UNILORIN rallies support for 50th anniversary celebrations

UniAbuja Didn’t Grab Land, Acting VC Replies Wike

Nigeria’s global labour rights ranking a national embarrassment – NLC

Patriots demand new constitution, support independent candidature

Awujale was national figure, voice of wisdom – NSCIA

Nnamdi Kanu’s trial politically-motivated — IPOB

RCCG pastor steals $8,000, begins new life in US – Mummy G.O

ICSAN to hold investiture for Ukpanah as 30th president

South-South contributed N34tn to Nigeria’s economy in 2024 – Banker’s institute

Dana Motors Targets 18,000 Electric Cars Annually

NGX gains N833bn on cement stock surge

Lagos, Diageo train 250 youths in hospitality

POFON pledges to stabilise palm oil price

Buyout deals trigger scramble for First Holdco’s shares

Refinery sale without audit after $2.8bn waste criminal – ADC

Sokoto Govt House was in darkness before Aliyu’s emergence – APC chair

Asue Ighodalo’s campaign DG dumps PDP

Dumebi Kachikwu rejects alleged ADC takeover, insists party is not for sale

Sanwo-Olu unveils market, office complex in Mushin

Okpebholo promises to make Edo power house of sports

Brain drain crippling Sokoto health sector – Commissioner

Oyo returns 60,000 pupils, doubles teachers in schools

Borno warns against reselling of UNICEF donated therapeutic food

Benue uncovers 4,000 substandard schools

E-call up: Lagos enforces N10,000 fee on Lekki-Epe corridor

Edo to improve health planning with digital platform

Lagos to increase number of technical colleges, harps on skills

Jigawa to roll out HIV drugs at PHCs

Kwara holds JSS placement exam July 26

LAMATA resumes compensation for persons affected by bus corridor project

Awujale stool: Ruling house kicks off selection, insists on tradition

Fusengbuwa ruling house rolls out traditional ‘Gbedu’ for selection of new Awujale

11 nabbed over two schoolboys’ murder in Kano

Ondo horror: Landlord, accomplices nabbed over varsity students’ murder

Keffi bridge collapses, kills 2 persons

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*TODAY IN HISTORY*

* On this day in 1870, the first Vatican Council, also known as Vatican I, decreed the doctrine of Papal infallibility. The doctrine claims that the Pope cannot err when speaking on issues of morality and/ or faith.

-------------------------

If people are crazy enough to dare, impossible things happen. – Richard Branson

Good morning

*Compiled by Hon. Osuji George osujis@yahoo.com +234-8122200446*

UKPABI ASIKA THE GREAT!

By Emeka Obasi

No individual did more for the Igbo after the genocidal Civil War than Ajie Ukpabi Asika, a First Class Economist produced by the University of Ibadan, who was appointed Administrator of East Central State in 1967. Strangely, those who should praise him only remember that he did not support Biafra.

Asika and his wife, Chinyere, returned from the United States with chains of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) degrees and settled down to work at the University of Ibadan. By 1966, they had moved to Tanzania and later Zambia.

It took another Economist, Dr. Adebayo Adedeji, to recommend Ajie to Gowon through Col. Olu Obasanjo. He was the only civilian among the twelve new governors. Had Gowon appointed a Federal officer to administer the East, perhaps everything Biafra would have been completely destroyed.

Asika behaved like a statesman. He welcomed and rehabilitated all those that were on the Biafran side and put their ingenuity to good use. Those who fuelled inventions through Research And Production (RAP) got a new agency, Project Development Agency (PRODA) headed by one of the brains behind Ogbunigwe, Gordian Ezekwe.

The ECS cabinet had an array of achievers, carefully selected. There was Ukwu I. Ukwu, with PhD, Cantab. Samuel Ikoku, Economist, politician and University lecturer, Charles Abangwu, former Deputy Speaker, Eastern Region House of Assembly, Magnus Adiele, another University teacher and Dan Ibekwe, lawyer, former Federal minister, also made it.

Flora Nwapa, novelist and University administrator, joined Philip Nnaemeka Agu, a lawyer, Martin Elechi a former District Officer (DO), Dan Njemanze, another lawyer, Osita Okeke, Zackhaeus  Dibiaezue, and Anthony Ofo - Mogboh, to move the new state to greater heights. They were supported by Chu Okongwu, Vincent Aniago and Innocent Nwoga, among others.

What many did not know was that before the war ended, Asika moved swiftly to secure Igbo investments across the nation. He was successful in the West, in Kano, in Ilorin but Port Harcourt gave him so much headache. Rivers State governor, Alfred Papapreye Diette - Spiff, hardened his heart and supported what became known as Abandoned Property.

It was sad that Spiff who attended St. Joseph's College, Sasse Buea, Western Cameroon, did not consider men like Prof.Theodore Okeahialam and his brother, Heron, who also passed out from the same school, before him.

Heron was the Engineer behind Radio Biafra, who made the world believe that the studio was in Enugu all through the war. Fact is, he moved the station round. At a time, signals came from a palm tree in Otulu, Ahiara, Mbaise. Prof. Okeahialam did not only head the Biafran Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre in Libreviile, Gabon, he pioneered inventions.

Biafran doctors produced Kwashiorkor Mixture for malnourished children, a formula later adopted by the World Health Organisation. F. Udekwu and David Nwafor used fresh coconut as intravenous fluids to treat wounded soldiers. Nelly Obiayo separated Siamese twins. Humphrey Anyanwu did well with surgery.

In 1974, Anyanwu and Nwafor had jobs at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu. They performed two major heart surgeries with Egyptian turned Briton, Bagdi Yacoub.

Asika did not like the unforgiving spirit of Spiff. The Amanyanabo of Bonny, William Dappa Pepple, was exiled, for following Gen. Emeka Ojukwu to one of the Peace Meetings in Addis Ababa, in 1968. The king lived in Enugu. Ojukwu was worried but relief came when Asika found a place for Pepple in Aba, nearer home. He died there in 1972. Today his son, Asimini Dappa People III, sits on the throne as Perekule XI, Amanyanabo of Bonny.

Asika had the most efficient Civil Service in the country, that applied IBM computers through the Eastern Data Processing Centre, manned by Dr. Ofia Nwali and supervised by Ukwu I. Ukwu. Scholarships to Europe, America and other parts of Nigeria were awarded and handled perfectly. 

In Sports, Asika was excellent. Enugu Rangers remain the first Nigerian team to become double champions. This was achieved in 1974. That foundation also makes the Flying Antelopes the only club to have won the Challenge Cup three times consecutively.

East Central State Academicals lifted the Manuwa/ Adebajo Cup in 1971. East Central State Spartans grabbed soccer gold at the First National Sports Festival, Lagos 1973 and retained it in 1975. Rangers had won the first league, the Amachree Cup, although informally, in 1971.

All the players and managers of these teams were Biafran combatants. Coach Dan Anyiam, was Brigade Major of the 60 Brigade that fought gallantly in Oguta. Skipper Godwin Achebe was at the School of Infantry. Godwin Ogbueze was a teenage commando, just like Dominic Nwobodo. Patrick Ekeji moved from the Air Force to Army Signals. Emma Okala and Christian Chukwu, fought as well. Nwabueze Nwankwo was tough in the Mid - West.

Today's leaders would have distanced themselves from Biafrans who painted Asika in bad light. Ajie welcomed them with open arms and was the one who coined the phrase, No Victor , No Vanquished. He visited fellow governors, to be sure that harm did not befall returnee Ndigbo.

I got chatting recently with multi talented Obi Asika, Ajie's son who has continued from where his father stopped. The Junior Asika is into music, soccer, administration, name it. He said : "No Victor, No Vanquished was actually a book written by Ajie. He also negotiated General Amnesty for Biafran soldiers and kept almost everyone out of prison. There is a road named after him in Kano, and another in Ilorin, for his work of rehabilitating the Igbo, securing their property and giving them a way back. I celebrate him every day."

Some of the Biafran officers who were in detention beyond Asika's tenure, were set free in August 1975 by Murtala Mohammed. They included 1966 coup plotters, Humphrey Chukwuma, who remained in Biafran detention through out the war and Ganiyu Adeleke, who commanded the Biafran School of Infantry after he was injured in battle. Peter Adomokai, Aide de Camp to David Ejoor was an Instructor at the School of Infantry. There was also the soldier, Peter Odili. Both men were not in detention.
Benneth Ochei was also set free alongside, Ojukwu's aide, Kanayo Esinulo, who was whisked away from the Lagos Airport, on his way to Frankfurt, by security operatives, on August 23, 1973.

Prof. Ken Post who once lectured at the University of Ibadan told Esinulo that Asika "was one of the most brilliant students I ever taught in all my teaching career." Ajie founded the ECS Writers Workshop and loved Arts and Entertainment. At the First National Festival of Ars and Culture, his state emerged tops. Nkpokiti dancers were also spectacular, globally.

Born in Barkin Ladi and moulded at St. Patrick's College, Calabar and Edo College, Benin, the Umuezearoli, Onitsha man explored the world and brought his experience home. Asika married Chinyere, whose dad was the super public servant, Nathan Ejiogu of Egbu, Owerri. Her sister, Kema Chikwe, became a Federal minister. South - East governors need to be schooled about what Ajie Anthony Ukpabi Asika( Dona Meche ) did for the Geo Political Zone.

PLEASE SHARE TO OTHER PLATFORMS: For our SE Leaders attention and information. May history and posterity honor for the sake of our children.
REV UKANWA ULU

BREAKING: Ngige Urges Tinubu to Free Nnamdi Kanu!

Former Minister of Labour and prominent APC figure, Dr. Chris Ngige, is urging President Bola Tinubu to uphold constitutional justice by releasing IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu.

“I’m calling on President Bola Tinubu to use his constitutional powers and address this issue,” Ngige emphasized, highlighting the importance of finding a political solution to alleviate the growing tensions in the Southeast.

This appeal puts additional pressure on the Presidency as public demands and regional unrest continue to rise.

Do you think Tinubu should respond to this call and release Nnamdi Kanu? Share your thoughts in the comments!

HELP spread the word by sharing this post and joining the national conversation. FOLLOW our page to keep up with this and other trending stories.

#NnamdiKanu #nigeria #Tinubu #Freekan #Biafra #JusticeForAll #NewsFlash #NigeriaNews #politicalsolutions
Gist/Entertainment corner

When Fighters Unite, Tyrants Tremble!

This gesture transcended a simple handshake; it symbolized a catalyst for change.

Nnamdi Kanu and Omoyele Sowore — two influential voices that pose a significant threat to the oppressors. One advocates for Biafran self-determination, while the other champions a revolution to liberate all Nigerians, from north to south.

In New York, they converged to declare a unified stance: The people will not be divided. We will not succumb to oppression.

This image serves as a poignant reminder: The genuine adversaries are not our tribes, languages, or faiths, but rather the corrupt elite who exploit our suffering for personal gain.

Their strategy is to instill fear among us, fueling divisions. However, when we unite — Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Idoma, Tiv — our collective power as a free people becomes an unstoppable force.

May we never forget the transformative impact of unity. May our pursuit of justice remain unwavering. #FreedomNow #FreeNnamdiKanu #RevolutionNow #UniteAndResist #Nigeria

*"BUHARI'S DOUBLE"*

“Matters miscellaneous,” as many a fellow commentator has graciously acknowledged, is the platform I patented back in my days at Rutam House for attending to a glut of occurrences in broad strokes and short takes, lest the people who make and the people who consume the news feel neglected.

Here, in all its eclecticism, is the bulletin du jour.

In journalistic reckoning, the case of Buhari’s Double has to be the top item.

Since 2017, so goes the tale reportedly originated by the fugitive leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nigeria has been ruled by a Buhari look-alike, Jubril al Sudan, a native of Sudan — or Niger, take your pick. Buhari had died in the UK in 2017, where he was undergoing medical treatment.

Notwithstanding the fact that Queen Elizabeth had sent a message of condolence to the Nigerian government, the entrenched Cabal in Aso Rock had procured a Buhari double in Sudan and pressed him into service as Nigeria’s president.

Despite occasional stumbles and apparent loss of memory, the transition had gone so smoothly that the only tell-tale sign of the infernal switch was a scar on Jubril’s left earlobe that was not a part of Buhari’s profile.

Kanu, or whoever began the tale, and those who have been peddling it, should update their material.

I can report authoritatively that representatives of the Jubril family, having discovered the gigantic swindle, suddenly showed up in Abuja the other day and demanded to be compensated with a power-sharing arrangement at the federal level in perpetuity, plus 50 per cent of Nigeria’s oil revenues for ten years in the first instance. Failing this, they warned, they would tell their story to the whole world.

I can also reveal that the Nigerian authorities have entered into frantic negotiations with Jubril’s family to head off what is sure to earn a double entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s Dirtiest and Worst-kept Secret. The UK authorities are mediating.

Meanwhile, dependable sources tell me that Abuja is close to unravelling the true identity of the fake Jew parading himself on faked foreign soil as Nnamdi Kanu.

(https://thenationonlineng.net/matters-miscellaneous-13/)

• (Published November 27, 2018, under Matters Miscellaneous)

In 2017, a conspiracy theory that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had died in a London hospital and was replaced with a body double called ‘Jubril’ from Sudan surfaced in popular discourse. This occurred after Buhari had spent three months undergoing medical treatment in London for an undisclosed illness. The President’s location outside of Nigeria, in the country that was its former colonizer, gave shape to different versions of the conspiracy theory, with suggestions that British Nigerian political elites were behind the replacement of the President and were hiding his alleged death.
Anxieties around the President were initially provoked by a tweet on 19 May 2017, in which Eric Joyce, a British politician, tweeted that the President was dead. President Buhari had last been seen in public two weeks earlier. Eric Joyce’s tweet triggered Nigerians who were looking to escape a repeat of the power vacuum that had been experienced in the country after the death of a previous sitting president, Umaru Yar’Adua, who died in similar and somewhat mysterious circumstances in 2010.
Narratives that the president was a clone emerged in public discourse following President Buhari's public reappearance and return to Nigeria from the UK in August 2017. The first identified online appearance of the clone conspiracy theory was a YouTube video created by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group in southeastern Nigeria, in September 2017. The group had been seizing opportunities during election windows to insert itself into broader political debates by whipping up regional sentiments of marginalization and political apathy. It had used a range of mainstream and social media channels to call the attention of the international community to its agitations and the illegal detention/trial of its leader. The body double conspiracy theory was picked up in the Nigerian media and widely spread through different forms of popular communication in Nigeria, resulting in Buhari publicly acknowledging and confronting the conspiracy theory. On 2 December 2018, Buhari insisted during an event in Poland, ‘It’s [the] real me, I assure you.’ The IPOB leader responded, tweeting:
If Buhari is not dead and replaced by Jubril from Sudan, why won't the Nigerian government sue Eric Joyce, a former British lawmaker, for peddling lies? They can’t because they know I am speaking the truth. @AsoRock @ericjoyce @NGRPresident @UKParliament @NGRSenate @WhiteHouse t.co/qqrKHPmtNy
In this article, this conspiracy theory that President Buhari was a clone is addressed as an opportunity to question the superficial confidence with which conspiracy theories have been dismissed as aberrations and negative externalities of digital ecosystems and their supporters as threats to an ostensibly deliberative public sphere. While not pitched in defense of conspiracy theories, it seeks to examine them without the comfortable protection of post-enlightenment normativity and to remind us how injunctions to ‘speak civilly’ or ‘think rationally’ tend to reproduce tropes from a colonial past, dismissing or erasing other forms of knowledge/reasoning used to make sense of the world to speak to power.

The arguments and analyses we advance here are closely related to those we presented in a previous article (Gagliardone et al.,
Citation
2021), where we empirically illustrated how this explorative, rather than normative, approach allows us to grasp how individuals do not simply fall for, embrace, or support a conspiracy theory but can ‘do’ specific and distinct things with/through them. In that article, we comparatively analyzed how conspiracy theories circulating at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic were seized by some Nigerian users and politicians as opportunities to criticize the ruling party, while in South Africa the same conspiracy theories became a vehicle to voice deep-rooted resentment towards the West and corporate interests.

IPOB PRESS RELEASE
9th July, 2025

RE: ANYONE COMPARING MAZI NNAMDI KANU TO A COWARDLY CONTENT CREATOR NEEDS PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION

The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the supreme leadership of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been drawn to an utterly deranged and disgraceful narrative gaining traction among the intellectually bankrupt, in which cowards and charlatans—masquerading from foreign comfort zones as so-called “freedom fighters”—seek to compare Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to a self-proclaimed content creator and certified coward.

Let us state it categorically: anyone foolish or mentally impaired enough to draw such a comparison needs urgent psychiatric intervention. Comparing the indomitable Mazi Nnamdi Kanu—who has endured extraordinary rendition, solitary confinement, torture, and a seven-year political and legal onslaught—to a coward who publicly denied Biafra in open court is the height of lunacy.

MAZI NNAMDI KANU STANDS FOR DISCIPLINE, SACRIFICE, AND INTEGRITY
Unlike criminals hiding behind the mask of activism, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has always emphasized discipline, non-violence, and moral clarity in the Biafra restoration project. His record speaks for itself:

He wrote and spoke against criminality in the name of agitation.
He personally instructed his lawyer, Barrister Maxwell Opara, to travel to Finland to convey his displeasure over the atrocities being committed in his name. The coward in question refused to meet him.
He issued a handwritten directive from DSS detention ending the Monday sit-at-home policy—but was brazenly disobeyed by those intent on profiting from the blood of Biafrans.
In yet another remarkable act of responsibility, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu invited Benjamin Madubugwu, his former co-acussed and cellmate in Kuje (2015–2017), to visit him at the DSS dungeon. The purpose of that visit was simple: to deliver a personal message to Biafrans, declaring that no Igbo person had a hand in his abduction and rendition, and that all forms of criminality in the name of Biafra are evil and unacceptable.
That message—like every other instruction from our leader—was deliberately ignored by these impostors and opportunists.

THE THINGS MAZI NNAMDI KANU FORBIDS — ALL VIOLATED BY A COWARD IN HELSINKI
Let the records reflect that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu publicly forbade the following acts, all of which were later carried out by the cowardly fraudster now desperately seeking attention:

No Biafran should form a government in exile.
No Biafran should form an army or armed group.
No Biafran currency should be printed or sold.
No Biafra identity card should be created.
No Biafran passport should be printed or circulated.
Yet this Helsinki-based attention-seeker, lacking discipline or ideological clarity, violated every single one of these directives while claiming to “fight” for Biafra. Biafra is not a fantasy. It is not a YouTube show. It is not a plaything for criminals and cowards who find joy in extorting their own people.

How can any sane person declare a “government” in a barbing salon in Helsinki without the consent of the people? Is this how revolutions are led? Is this what Biafran republicanism has been reduced to?

BLOOD ON HIS HANDS — AND HE BOASTS OF IT
The man being falsely compared to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu once boasted openly that he killed Ikechukwu Ugwuoha, the IPOB Biafraland Coordinator. Who does that? What manner of beast celebrates the killing of fellow Biafrans? That some gullible followers still fawn over such a coward is the greatest disappointment to our leader and all those who gave their lives for Biafra.

IPOB REMAINS WHITER THAN WHITE — CLEANER THAN CLEAN
Let it be known to all that IPOB has nothing to do with the so-called “Biafra Government in Exile.” We are not part of that criminal syndicate. We do not endorse or recognize it. We do not kill, extort, or run rackets in the name of Biafra.

The inability of the Nigerian state to sustain any legitimate charge against our leader, despite multiple amendments and desperate media propaganda, is proof of the purity of our struggle and the discipline of our leadership. The Kenyan High Court has already declared his abduction unconstitutional. And despite all the torture and manipulation, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu remains unbroken—because he is fighting a just cause.

Let the world understand that when the dust settles, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu shall speak again, and the enemies within and without shall be exposed.

Biafra is not a hustle. Biafra is not for cowards. Biafra is not content for clicks.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL SPOKESPERSON/MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

#FreeMaziNnamdiKanuNow
#BiafraReferendumNow
#SelfDeterminationIsNotCrime

Villa rat” invasion story to cover up Buhari’s prolonged illness and absence from governance, has vindicated the position of the pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

"NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISHED”? NO, SIR. JUST THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT
A Truthful Dissection of Gen. Gowon’s Crocodile Tears

✍Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu

"I always remember the Civil War. It was the most difficult period of my life. It was not my choice…” So says General Yakubu Gowon: decades after the fact, as if the burden of memory alone could exonerate a man from the burden of responsibility.

But memory, stripped of remorse, becomes theatre. And this latest performance by the old General, wrapped in prayerful tones and wistful platitudes, is exactly that a theatre of moral evasion. What was presented as reflection was in fact deflection. A man who presided over the darkest chapter in Nigeria’s history now seeks to launder his conscience with the sponge of spirituality, mouthing prayers as if that were enough to bury three million truths beneath the soil of forgetfulness.

No, sir. You did not pray. You played. You played politics with people’s lives. You played Russian roulette with the destiny of a region. You played central command while entire communities burned. You stood at the gates of peace and walked away. The blood did not flow because you had no choice, it flowed because you made a choice. And the choice was war.

You stood beside Odumegwu Ojukwu at Aburi in Ghana. There, both of you spoke, agreed, shook hands and made a pact. You returned to Lagos to a hero’s welcome, but before the ink of trust could dry, you tore it apart. You listened to federal hawks, buried Aburi under the rubble of Decree No. 8, and turned your face from peace. You betrayed a solemn covenant for the sake of power. That betrayal, not the first shot fired, is where the war truly began.

The records are stubborn. They do not bend to nostalgia. They remind us that before a single Biafran soldier took up arms, thousands of Igbos had been hacked down in the North. Pregnant women butchered. Children beheaded. Men dismembered in full daylight. Railway stations were turned into morgues. Churches, into chambers of death. Kaduna. Kano. Jos. The North descended into madness, and the East was served grief on a plate of silence.

You, sir, presided over that silence. You were Commander-in-Chief, not a curious passerby. You issued words but withheld justice. You gave speeches, but not shelter. You watched a people bleed and called it unfortunate. And now, years later, you whisper: "It was never out of hatred." But hatred needs no introduction when its fruit is genocide.

And then came your famous phrase, carved into Nigeria’s post-war psyche: “No victor, no vanquished.” It sounded noble. It rang loud. But it rang false. Because the war ended, yes, but justice never began. Biafrans were not vanquished by force alone, they were buried beneath the rubble of reconstruction. Their economy was stripped. Their currency devalued. Their children starved. Their land mined and their dignity mocked. What you called reintegration, we lived as retribution. What you labeled reconciliation, we endured as marginalisation. The victor danced in national attire. The vanquished crawled through national amnesia.

Sir, you had the chance to become a Mandela long before South Africa birthed one. You had the moment. The world watched. The African continent stood still. But you chose empire over empathy. You chose command over compassion. You chose to keep Nigeria one by breaking a people in half. And now, the same mouth that sanctioned the guns says, "I prayed to God." Perhaps you did. But God is not mocked by crocodile tears. Not when the skulls of infants still haunt the red soil of Nsukka, Aba, Umuahia, and Onitsha.

Prayer is not repentance. Repentance begins with truth. And the truth is that you, along with others, enabled a war that was avoidable. You squandered the peace we almost had at Aburi. You enabled pogroms with your silence. You denied justice its wings and handed the world a bullet instead. And when it was all done, you wrapped the pain in poetry and hoped the music would make us forget.

But we remember. Not because we hate. But because we bleed.

This is not a call to bitterness. It is a call to honesty. To name what happened. To look the children of Biafra in the eye and say: Yes, you were wronged. Yes, we failed you. Yes, the war was avoidable. And no, it should never have happened.

Until then, sir, do not cloak yourself in prayer while justice lies unclothed. Do not speak of love when you could not uphold truth. Do not say “it was not my choice” when history has proven otherwise. And above all, do not try to rewrite what we lived.

You may now carry the Bible in one hand. But the other hand still drips with memories. Your legacy may wear the robe of elder statesmanship. But it remains stained by silence, by betrayal, and by the bones of those who trusted your word at Aburi.

So here, General Gowon, is what history truly says:
You may cry now, but the tears do not wash the blood away.
You may kneel today, but that does not undo the horror of yesterday.
You may pray, but the ghosts still answer with questions.
And until Nigeria confronts its past with courage, it will never know peace that lasts.

We forgive. But we do not forget. We move on. But we do not move blind.

Because truth, bitter as it may be - is still better than convenient lies.

✍Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
Social Cum Political Analysis|Tuesday, June 10, 2025

FG CLOSES CASE AGAINST KANU

The Federal Government has officially closed its case against Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), after presenting its fifth and final witness at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Kanu is facing an eight-count charge of terrorism, but the case took an unexpected turn when the final prosecution witness — a Department of State Services (DSS) officer identified only as Mr. EEE — admitted under cross-examination that he had never investigated Kanu directly.

Mr. EEE, who works with the DSS in Abuja, told the court he only knew of Kanu through the media and had never met him. He said his role was limited to gathering reports on events in the southern region during the 2020–2021 EndSARS protests.

According to him, those reports showed that 128 police officers, 37 soldiers, and 10 DSS operatives were killed, while 164 police stations and 19 INEC offices were destroyed. However, he admitted under questioning that:

* He was not involved in investigating any specific crimes linked to Kanu;
* He had no information tying IPOB to events in Lagos, Ibadan, or Ile-Ife;
* He was unaware of the Lagos State Judicial Panel report on EndSARS, which did not implicate IPOB in the violence.

Following his testimony, government lawyers said they had presented enough evidence and would close their case.

Kanu’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi, responded by announcing plans to file a “no-case submission” — a legal argument that the prosecution has not provided sufficient evidence to continue the trial. He requested 14 days from 24th June to prepare the filing.

Justice James Omotosho granted both sides 14 days each to file their final written addresses and adjourned the case until 18 July 2025 for the adoption of those submissions.

The trial continues to draw national attention, with critics questioning the strength of the prosecution’s case and supporters of Kanu claiming the charges are politically motivated.